behaviouralism

(redirected from behavioralists)

behaviouralism

or

behavioural approach

a theoretical and empirical approach within US POLITICAL SCIENCE which emphasizes the importance of sociological and psychological determinants of political actions and behaviour rather than confining attention, as is traditional in political science, to narrowly political processes, e.g. constitutional arrangements, legislative procedures. See POLITICAL BEHAVIOUR; compare BEHAVIOURISM.

As Tullock further pointed out, there "is no endogenous mechanism embedded in behavioral analysis for the subjects themselves to correct their decisions, aside from discovering their poor decisions through behavioralists' findings" (McKenzie and Tullock [1975] 2012, 441).

Whereas behavioralists tend to see psychological solutions to informational limits, rationalist accounts include the ability of humans to realize their cognitive limitations and design institutions that overcome some of these problems (Boettke, Caceres, and Martin 2013).

Its goal is to help people make "better" choices--i.e., choices more in line with the decisions they would make were they not subject to the cognitive and volitional frailties behavioral economists and cognitive psychologists (collectively, "behavioralists") claim to have identified.

When Hume famously described reason as a "slave to" passion, he was making a descriptive statement about human nature that echoes modern behavioralists, (298) one central to his (and James Madison's) theory of government.

All content on this website, including dictionary, thesaurus, literature, geography, and other reference data is for informational purposes only. This information should not be considered complete, up to date, and is not intended to be used in place of a visit, consultation, or advice of a legal, medical, or any other professional.